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Grassroots coalition announces campaign to defeat Cuyahoga County 'sin tax' renewal in May

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The original Cuyahoga County 'sin tax,' which voters approved in 1990 helped build Progressive Field, seen here, and Quicken Loans Arena. A group calling itself a grassroots coalition opposed to renewing the sin tax this May announced its formation on Tuesday.
(file photo)

The Coalition Against the Sin Tax announced a digital presence – a website (noclevelandsintax.com) and Twitter handle (@NoCLESinTax) – as well as a campaign kickoff event at 6 p.m. on March 19 at the Market Garden Brewery in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood.

“The teams and their corporate sponsors will outspend us by hundreds of thousands of dollars in their rushed grab for this public cash,” said coalition chair Peter Pattakos, a Cleveland attorney who has blogged about the sin tax at his website, ClevelandFrowns.com. “So it’s especially important that the public becomes engaged on this issue and shows up at the ballot box on May 6 to vote no on Issue 7.”

The sin tax, a tax on alcohol and cigarettes, would pay for maintenance to FirstEnergy Stadium, Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena. Sin tax renewal proponents, which includes the Greater Cleveland Partnership, politicians and downtown business owners, say the stadiums have enlivened the downtown economy. Taxpayers are ultimately responsible to pay for maintenance under the terms of the teams' leases; if the sin tax fails, local governments would have to make up the difference out of their general funds or else the teams could break their leases, they say.

In an email, Nancy Lesic, a spokeswoman for the pro-sin tax campaign, said many of the specific criticisms the coalition makes are inconsistent -- for example, railing against the burden the tax places on county residents while not making mention of non-county residents who buy alcohol here while visiting the stadiums. (Scroll down to read her entire email.)

"This is not a tax increase. None of the money goes to team owners or player salaries. All of the money would go to making capital repairs to these three publicly owned buildings so that we can maximize and extend their use for many years to come," she said.

The county's sin tax is assessed at 4.5 cents per pack of cigarettes, 1.5 cents per 12-ounce bottle of beer, 6 cents per 750-milliliter bottle of wine, 32 cents per gallon of mixed beverages, 24 cents per gallon of cider and $3 per gallon of hard liquor. Based on recent collections, it would collect at least $260 million from taxpayers over the next 20 years.

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